Christopher C. Fennell

I am an anthropologist and lawyer (MA, U. Pennsylvania; JD, Georgetown U. 1989; Ph.D., U. Virginia 2003), specializing in historical archaeology, African diaspora studies, and legal anthropology as an Associate Professor of Anthropology. I served as the Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Head of Anthropology at UIUC from 2010 through 2013. I also teach courses as a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. My empirical research addresses subjects in trans-Atlantic historical archaeology and the dynamics of social group affiliations and lifeways among Europeans, Africans, and various social groups within the Americas. These research initiatives include interpretative frameworks focusing on social group identities, ethnic group dynamics and racialization, diaspora studies, regional systems and commodity chains, stylistic and symbolic elements of material culture, consumption patterns, and analysis of craft and industrial enterprises.

In addition to teaching courses in anthropology and archaeology, my faculty work includes: affiliate faculty member of the Department of Landscape Architecture, offering courses on landscape analysis and surveying techniques; member of the College of Law faculty, offering interdisciplinary seminars for graduate and law students; faculty affiliate of the Center for African Studies and the Department of African American Studies, offering courses addressing African diaspora subjects and issues of racialization. Publications, including recent books, research papers, and works in progress, are listed in my resume. I am privileged to work with a number of talented doctoral advisees, including George Calfas (Ph.D. 2013), Kathryn Fay (MA), Jamie Arjona (NSF Graduate Fellowship recipient), Tatiana Niculescu, Zev Cossin (NSF Graduate Fellowship recipient), Shawn Fields (Graduate College Fellowship recipient), Rebecca Schumann (MA), and Kathrina Aben (MAA), and to serve as a committee member for others.

I am the founding editor of the Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage, publisher and past editor of the African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter, a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, and a member of the board of directors of the Society for Historical Archaeology (2012-2015). I received the 2009 John L. Cotter Award by the Society for Historical Archaeology for scholarly "achievement which is truly outstanding," the 2010 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities by the Council for Graduate Schools for "outstanding contribution to scholarship," and a University Scholar award (2014-2017).

I am also collaborating on a multi-year research projects concerning: cultural landscapes and intersections of tradition and modernity in west Ireland; African-American craft innovations and industrial-scale production activities in the Edgefield Pottery District in South Carolina; and the social history of New Philadelphia, Illinois, a demographically integrated town founded by a free African American in 1836. Please follow the links below for information on these projects, an award-winning internet archive focusing on the history and archaeology of the Plymouth Colony, resources I've created for the African Diaspora Archaeology Network, and course materials.

Sample Publications

"Artifacts to Invoke, Direct, and Deflect," 48(3): 196-200, in "Manifestations of Magic: The Archaeology and Material Culture of Folk Religion," guest edited by Christopher Fennell and M. Chris Manning, special thematic issue in Historical Archaeology 48(3): 1-200 (2014). This collection of articles is dedicated to the career of Ralph Merrifield.

"Dexterous Creation: Material Manifestations of Instrumental Symbolism in the Americas," an invited chapter in Materialities of Ritual in the Black Atlantic, edited by Akinwumi Ogundiran and Paula Saunders, pp. 216-235, a peer-reviewed publication of Indiana University Press (2014).

"Kongo and the Archaeology of Early African America," in Kongo Across the Waters, edited by Susan Cooksey, Robin Poynor, and Hein Vanhee, peer reviewed publication by University of Florida Press, pp. 229-237 (2013).

Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage, founding editor of this peer review journal published by Maney Publishing.

Crossroads and Cosmologies: Diasporas and Ethnogenesis in the New World, with a foreword by Robert Farris Thompson. University Press of Florida (2007).

"BaKongo Identity and Symbolic Expression in the Americas," an invited chapter in The Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora, edited by Toyin Falola and Akin Ogundiran, pp. 210-50, Indiana University Press (2007).

"Fear and Greed in Tax Policy: A Qualitative Research Agenda," with Lee A. Fennell, Washington University Journal of Law and Policy 13: 75-138 (2003) (pdf).